Second Life
by Ulqui4
Summary: Isshin is forced to kill his son because of orders from Soul Society. A second life is offered to Ichigo in Huenco Mundo before he can return to Soul Society and to figure out why he was killed. CH3: Shiro and Ichigo discover a new connection... a violent one.
1. Prologue

**Title: **Second Life

**Author's note:** If you have ever read my other story, "Cero, Ichigo," you know that it is a light-hearted story; tons of pathos. This, on the other hand, is not. It has a very deep plot behind it and builds relationships from roots. Isshin is forced by Soul Society to kill Ichigo because they realize that Ichigo's hollow is his weak point now. Aizen is returning and targeting the weak point. If Ichigo gets killed by the hands of any other, he was going to be forced to wander as an aimless soul.

**Warnings:** A little OOC. Ichigo's past. A lot of pathos. Eventual relationships: only father-son in this chapter.

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**Prologue:**

That day… that day that should have never came…

"Dad, what are you-," Ichigo gripped the blade in front of him as he gasped for another breath, "Hahhhh… doing to me…?"

The strong Zanpakutō, much like his own, had run through him in the hands of none other than his father. The orange-haired boy couldn't believe it. Was he to die in the hands of the man whom he inherited his powers from? Was he to be a sacrifice? Ichigo's heart was now nothing more than a hole that his father had made on purpose. His eyes were wide because he was gripping onto dear life. There was no escaping the harsh reality.

"Dad…" Ichigo looked up with life barely in his eyes. He did something that he had done only once before after getting his shinigami powers back in the last three years; he cried. "Hah, why, dad?"

Ichigo looked at his father as if he was the bane of his existence. This wasn't true to the slightest. It was almost cheating. The hit he had taken was a terrible hit. It was sneaky and not brave or how a death god should fight.

Ichigo gathered up whatever life he could find inside, "Dad… Look me in the eyes, and tell me w-why you did this!" Ichigo was on the ground, hands pressing against the hard floor of his room. The blood from the puncture dripped down Engetsu and tainted Isshin's Zanpakutō. Isshin looked down to see those determined amber orbs that Masaki had. He dropped. There was no way he could take this. The father wrapped his arms around his dying son.

"Ichigo… I didn't," Isshin broke into tears, "They said you have to go and if y-y-you don't, Aizen will figure out your weakness… That hollow that you've been suppressing. I-I… Your mother… Masaki will never forgive me."

Before Isshin could finish his thought, his son _died_. Kurosaki Ichigo left. Without a trace, he vanished right in his father's arms. The body was there… Ichigo wasn't.

"Ichigo!" Isshin cried, he grabbed at his son, "My only son… My pride, my joy, my light, where did you go?! Why did I agree to do this?!" Isshin pulled the sword out of his son.

"This… this blade, it's tainted." The dark-haired man threw Engetsu across the room where it hit the wall. "I won't use it… I won't use it until I see you again."

Isshin held his son closer than he ever had and kissed his forehead, brushing away Ichigo's striking orange hair. "Masaki… What are you going to say to me?"

And he was left there. In the midst of the darkness of the night, there was a bright moon that peaked through the flowing, red curtains. It shone through the window right onto Ichigo's body as it disintegrated along with his soul right upwards.

Once, it was completely gone and Isshin wasn't holding anything, he fell forwards, weeping for his son to come back.

"I would have given anything to save you and Masaki, Ichigo," Isshin spoke, "Anything! Even my life… Why… Why did you give up your life? You were the only, the only thing I had left. Who's going to protect everyone now?"

Isshin stood up. "You will come back, my son! You will be so strong," Isshin took a deep breath, "For now…"

A stray tear found itself. "I will share every grief that you do."

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**Author's Note: **This was just the prologue. What do you guys think? Please **review, follow, and favorite**. I will reveal everything. There is an entire back story as to why Ichigo had to be killed. He's going to find himself in the ideal place to do some _bonding_ with his hollow. And some other characters who are building themselves up as well after Aizen's death.


	2. Chapter 1: How it all went down

**Title: **Second Life

**Author's note: **Thank you to Ryoka Mika, mei-tan13, michi-nolet, AsBlackAsNight, Shirosaki Ichigo, Ookami no Kurayami, and Murcielago44 for following. Thank you _AsBlackAsNight, Shirosaki Ichigo, Ookami no Kurayami, _and_ Murcielago44_ for favoriting. Thank you to **Shirosaki Ichigo **for reviewing. Your appreciation will not go unappreciated.

**Warning: **Revealing the situation, mild swearing, nostalgia. It is all a flashback as well where Yamamoto explains the situation.

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**Chapter One: How it all went down.**

"_Kurosaki Isshin!" Yamamoto Genryuusai's voice boomed through the hallway, "We don't call people back that have been banned from Soul Society for no reason."_

_The captains all stood around. Byakuya, for the first time, looked like he cared about the conversation going on in the room. Isshin Kurosaki was smiling at first, but slowly and surely, the smile reversed itself. That same concept applied to every captain in that room at the moment. _

_Shinji, who had been glad to his friend at first, slowly heard what was going to happen and he couldn't believe it either._

"_Kurosaki Ichigo has to die!" The captain-commander yelled at the top of his voice. _

"_What are you talking about, ya old geezer?" Isshin questioned, not understanding what the Captain-Commander was saying._

"_I mean, you have to kill him." It was serious now. Nobody was joking. There were no giggles in the audience. Only blank stares. _

"_Ya must be off your rocker, Genryuusai," Isshin just dusted it off of his shoulder like no big deal, he can't possibly be serious, right?_

"_This is a battle preparation," Genryuusai slammed his staff into the ground, "Kurosaki Ichigo has to die. Sadly, he is our only hope, again. But he hasn't been up to his potential."_

"_So, how the hell is killing him going to help a damn thing!" Isshin raised his voice. At first it was a game. But now, was it a life-or-death situation? _

"_The reason he's not a super power is because he hasn't touched his hollow mask. He hasn't needed to which means he is regressing! No person who deserves of the substitute shinigami badge, no person who is given a Zanpakutō, no person who can be labeled 'Savior of Soul Society' can regress!"_

"_So what? I can just teach him or train him," Isshin was still under the impression that the other's tone wasn't serious. There was no reason to _kill his son_. _

"_We cannot. The only person who can train Kurosaki's hollow is Kurosaki himself. We need to send him to Hueco Mundo. Or else, he, along with all of Soul Society, will be obliterated." _

_A lot of the captains were taken back. This was by far the most far-fetch'd order the Captain-Commander had dished out. Obliterated… just what had the old Captain-commander been hiding from them?_

_Nobody was manned enough to talk back to the first-division's captain. Kenpachi was too occupied by thoughts of killing to care._

"_What the hell are you talking about, Genryuusai?" Shinji spoke up. _

"_I am talking about Aizen's return!" Genryuusai bellowed and opened one eye to show the intensity and worry in his eyes. _

"_A-Aizen's return…?" Every captain in the room was in shock. No one had ever heard of this, until now. There was a pregnant pause. No one spoke._

_Finally, the commander said a few words, "Yes, this is true! Aizen broke out of the Maggot's Nest." _

_If one wanted to know the extreme of tension, that person would have to be in that room. There wasn't much trust between the two sides. No one knew how this had been kept as such a big secret. Soul Society had been so peaceful that it was criminal. Now, the peace had been broken. _

"_His whereabouts are unknown," Yamamoto elaborated before anyone can ask. "Now, we know that the only strategy he can't resort back to is using hollows as his pawns. That is why we must send him to Hueco Mundo."_

"_Why can't we just transport him through the gargantua?" Byakuya said a few words for the first time that went against the commander's thoughts. _

"_We cannot do that. I have consulted Kisuke Urahara about this. I did not tell him that we are planning to kill Ichigo as Kisuke would never allow that. There is no way around this. If Kurosaki Ichigo and his hollow do not train and comeback, there is no place for him to go. He will just become a wandering soul. after being killed by that evil man. And if Kurosaki dies, there is nothing standing between Soul Society and oblivion."_

"_I will not kill my son!" Isshin was on the verge of strangling the captain commander. To begin with, Isshin did not have as much respect for Yamamoto as the others did._

"_DO IT, Isshin, and you will have every single ounce of my respect," to have Yamamoto's respect was not a small thing. _

"_I don't want that lost respect, I want my son!" _

"_Isshin! I believe your son is the bravest, most determined shinigami that I have seen in my years as a captain. That is no small detail to be overlooked. He will return. And when he returns, he may have anything, and I mean anything, that his heart may desire. He can become a captain or even have the Soul king's Key. I have spoken with the people of the Spirit king's castle, they agreed that they will even grant him a place in Squad 0."_

_There was a mixture of astonishment and fear that floated through the air. No one could believe what was happening. Squad 0… And to someone who had only realized their shinigami powers for 5 years. It is insanity. But there was no doubt that if Ichigo didn't die, there was no way that Soul Society would survive another assault from Aizen. _

"_This is wrong!" Ukitake yelled at Yamamoto. He knew that if the news were to be broken to Rukia, she wouldn't be able to handle it. _

"_I agree," Kyoraku accorded with Ukitake, "It is one thing to send someone somewhere for training purposes. But having them killed in the hands their own father? That is just cruel, old man." _

"_How am I supposed to tell Rukia? How are we supposed to tell Renji? Or any of Ichigo's other friends like Sado-san, or Orihime-chan, or Ishida-kun? There will be a giant revolt on Soul Society."_

"_Explain everything that happened to them. This is not about them."_

_Yamamoto's sight shifted to the shaken-up man in front of him. "Kurosaki Isshin, do you want your son to die?"_

"_No."_

"_Then kill him."_

**Author's note: **I hope you understood what happened. Ichigo hasn't used his hollow in forever. This is a gateway that Aizen can use to kill him. So he must die and go to Hueco Mundo. I promise it will make more sense later.  
I am doing something a little bit different: I am going to post _shorter_ but more frequent chapters. They will have around 1000 words. I'm sorry for not putting this in the original time I uploaded this:

**HichiIchi warning in a few chapters.**

**Please Review, Favorite, and Follow.**


	3. Chapter 2: Don't Belong

**Title:** Second Life

**Author's note: **Please read this fanfiction. Listen to this before you click away. There will be HichiIchi Yaoi in the future. **NOTE**: This is a note for my other ongoing GrimmIchi, "Strawberry Heart Attack", there will be more very, very soon. Sorry for the delay, just been busy for a while.

**Warning: **Bad words, they shouldn't be OOC, but I apologize in advance if they are.

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Chapter 2: Don't Belong

Both of their eyes snapped open in a mix of wonder and confusion. His amber, black eyes were the first to look up; shortly followed by the other's bright, brown eyes. _What is this place…? This isn't where I belong_, the same ideas flood through each of their brains. All they saw was the empty, black sky.

It was completely black and vacant of life. Ichigo got to his feet and curled up with his knees in front of him. He remembered everything that happened in the past. "Dad… Yuzu, Karin…" These were just the names that happened by his cold, chapped lips. There were so many other people that he just wanted to hear their voice, just one more time.

The other white twin was on the ground, in awe. He couldn't believe it. He wasn't in his king's mind anymore. There was a world outside of there. So much to see, but Ichigo didn't want to see it. He got to his feet and looked over, "King?"

Ichigo saw who was right there. _Oh no… not him…_ Ichigo's eyes went wide. Of all the people he had to be dead with, why was Shirosaki Hichigo the one that had prevailed? Ichigo was too upset. He grabbed a handful of sand and trickled the individual grains.

"Why would… Why the hell would you do this to me?!" He screamed at the ominous, dark sky as if someone were listening to the pain and grief in his voice. There were tears that he didn't get to cry before his death. He wept now. He cried for his family, his job as a substitute shinigami, and all of his friends back in the other worlds.

On the other hand, Shirosaki, who hadn't seen much outside of Ichigo's inner world, was gleaming with happiness. "This place is fucking great!" he hoarsely yelled. Complete carelessness, horror, and evil smiled their ugly smiles upon the two.

Ichigo's sword lay upon the sand next to him. He grabbed the hilt and stroked it down. "Zangetsu…" the name sounded painful.

"HNNNNNNAHHH!" The semi-robotic cry of the hollow whiffed past their ears. Ichigo, now, couldn't care any less. His only thoughts were to get out of here. But he couldn't, he died. This is _his place_.

_The place for a dirty hollow like you… You are—a monster! You don't belong with us._

Every word that had ever been said to Ichigo about his hollow or his vizard powers now came back and haunted him. He cringed and curled down, facing the yellow sand. He slammed his palm against the sandy desert of Hueco Mundo. But all he did was cry. Shirosaki was confused. To the dark, soulless hollow, this is heaven.

"King, ya shithead, stop crying and get up before ya die. This is man for himself." He warned Ichigo, smiling ear to ear.

Ichigo got up heavily to his feet, groping Zangetsu in his right hand. Two seconds, when Shirosaki turned around, there was a sword centimeters from his throat. Ichigo heaved breath.

"You filthy bastard. Stay away from me." He wouldn't open even an eye to face Shirosaki who didn't deserve to be looked at.

At first, the albino was a little surprised, but then he grinned like masochist. "Heh, wouldn't have it any other fucking way."

Shirosaki grabbed his own sword and struck Ichigo Zangetsu with it and with a quite a bit of force, sending Ichigo back a long way. Ichigo rose to his feet, clutching his sword.

"GETSUGA TENSHO!" Ichigo released a massive black cloud of hollow energy at his twin who jumped into the air and slashed it away with his own Getsuga Tensho.

"Get out of here, king," Shirosaki waved his hand at him, "There is no way you can beat me with what you have. This is my place, _the WORLD OF THE HOLLOWS._"

"I know I don't fucking belong here!" Ichigo yelled at Shirosaki. Ichigo shivered in pain and confusion. His life, or shall it be called his death, were so frustrating. Why did fate always have to be against his hopes? There was no reason for him to be here. He wasn't a hollow that got banished to this empty realm. Never had he done anything bad enough to send him here. He was a soul reapers for fuck's sake. No _soul reaper _purposely ended up in Hueco Mundo.

Ichigo stabbed the ground with his zanpakatou. The power of the attack sent small, yet visible, shockwaves through the still sand. Shirosaki jumped into the air and landed back on his feet, not a bit threatened by the gesture.

Shirosaki repeated what he had once said, "King. _Leave_. Just get out. In this place, heh, I can do whatever the fuck I want."

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	4. Chapter 3: Blood Brothers

**Title: **_Second Life_

**Author's note: **My apologies for not uploading in such a long time. There is some HichiIchi _development_ here. Enjoy.

**Warnings: **Very angsty, violence, bad words.

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Left, abandoned, killed, and worst of all, _betrayed_; every horrendous emotion flooded through Ichigo, devouring him bit by bit. But now it was just him… walking in this lonely desert with no specific destination.

_Hah,_ he thought to himself, _of course I don't know where I'm going! I've never known where I was going and this is where I ended up. _In the end, was there anyone for him? His spirits stayed off the edge of suicide because that wasn't an option.

Now, he roamed, putting one foot in front of the other, hoping to reach _somewhere _with _someone _he can trust. Winds didn't keep themselves down; they whipped past Ichigo, howling in laughter as they went by. Recently, as in a few hours of his arrival in this barren land, Ichigo noticed that empty feeling he always had turn literal. A hole had started to open up in his chest, barely missing his heart. The hole was now about two centimeters in diameter and the skin on his hands began to get leathery.

"Hhh…" Ichigo fell to his knees as a sharp pain shot through his opening chest, "AH!"

As soon as it passed, he sat there, panting and holding the area where his heart was in a tight wrap. Short, gutted breaths volleyed against his throat. He'd given up so much for everyone, now, didn't they feel the least bit guilty that they had done this to him? Didn't they even feel… _PITY?_

Ichigo didn't have the will power or the stamina to go on any further. Desperately, he tried to rise to his feet. He failed and fell to the ground once again. For no reason, the flesh on his arm tore apart, cutting it.

"Hah-" Ichigo grabbed the side of his arm tightly, blood dripping from his knuckles. The skin underneath his hand started almost sowing itself back together and regenerating at an alarming pace like a hollow. It frightened Ichigo and sapped his energy. Immediately, Ichigo felt so tired and lethargic that he couldn't even sit up.

Lying on the sand, he closed his eyes. _Shit… I'll make prey for any hollow that shows up. _This thought didn't stop him from succumbing to a deep slumber.

"I swear, King…" Eyelids closed and opened, they fell droopily over their designated eyeballs. Ichigo's head was spinning but he could barely make out the picture of his hollow standing in front of him.

Ichigo's consciousness slowly came back to him at a snail's pace. Little spots in his vision kept showing up… but he tried to look through. There was Shiro, standing over him, looking somewhat concerned. A low groan vibrated through Ichigo's throat as he sat up.

"Just what the hell did you think you're doing, yer one retarded king," Shirosaki stuck a finger in his ear, pretending not to care. "What, were you gonna fucking sleep in the middle of the desert? Where the other hollows could come?"

Ichigo felt hot to the core, but not only was he embarrassed, he felt sick… but he was dead. First, he threw his head forward trying to heave himself up. "Ahh… No… Wh-what the fuck do you care?"

Shirosaki's lips started to curl up in madness before releasing a heart-wrenching, dry laugh, "T-the fuck do I care?" He threw the point of his katana to Ichigo's neck, knowing that he was completely vulnerable.

"See?! Hahahaha! See, King? I would cut that slender throat of yours but I can't!" He laughed a little bit more before slicing the very top layer of Ichigo's skin. Blood dripped from the cut and the drops started to roll down, staining Ichigo's muscular neck. Normally, he would've pulled out his sword or covered up his neck but he didn't. Without much energy, he just breathed heavily, gulping down as much air as he could with a new fire seeming to spark in his eyes.

"Ay, King, look!" One of Shiro's albino digits pointed up to his own neck. Ichigo stared at Shirosaki's neck… it was bleeding without any direct contact. "If you get your sorry ass hurt, I can die!"

"…And even if I do it myself," the hollow smirked evilly before dragging his nails across his wrist, welting it with blood plunging up. A new pain washed over Ichigo. He grabbed his wrist and he couldn't scream, but he writhed in pain, "GHhh…!"

For a moment, he looked Shirosaki in the eyes and almost felt bad for him, and Shiro the same; moment sparking some sort of connection between the two. Now, they had to protect each other because it was the same as protecting themselves.

"Look at that hole in your heart," Shiro pulled his kimono's neck down to show his and Ichigo stared down at his own... they looked exactly the same...

_Born together…_

_Immensely different identical twins…_

_This sweet nightmare…_

_We could have two heads but neither one can go…_

_We might be two souls within one soul with one fate shared by two…_

There was no point in denial, they were essentially born in the same womb and shared the same parents. Who knows where the differences came in? Blood from one wound was blood from the other, it didn't matter. One could drip both of their blood and not be able to tell which is which.

Basically they are almost people, they were born together. Two flowers that blossomed to the same bud that can't be separated without severing something important; there was no one in the world like them. Two worlds became one between them and they found their own ways. There was no way they couldn't be together without any life essence. From the day they were both aware of each other, they have stood as shadows to one another.

_I _wasn't something that could be said, but rather _we _were I. If life was a maze, they still chose the same path. One moment didn't exist for one without the other until now.

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_**Upcoming 'M rating' warning. Follow, Review, and favorite!**_


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